


Nine Lights

by Minutia_R



Category: The Chronicles of Chrestomanci - Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: Gen, Hanukkah, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 19:49:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5388095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minutia_R/pseuds/Minutia_R
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>When he saw the nine lights burning at the ends of their silver lamps, it reflected something inside him that he had no words for.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nine Lights

**Author's Note:**

> I originally posted this on [tumblr.](http://minutia-r.tumblr.com/post/134664438525/when-gabriel-was-in-school-he-used-to-go-to-his)

When Gabriel was in school, he used to go to his grandfather’s house for the Christmas holidays. Some years–when the dates fell out right–he would get to watch his grandfather light his great silver menorah, and listen to him chant the blessings. He asked his mother if it was magic, but she said no, it was prayer.

It didn’t sound like the prayers they said at school. (From which Gabriel had a note excusing him, but after the first year, he left it folded up in his trunk. He never liked to stand out.) Nor did it sound like the magic they learned at school. But when he saw the nine lights burning at the ends of their silver lamps, it reflected something inside him that he had no words for.

He understood a little better after he died the first time. But he never understood why the ninth light, that all the others were kindled from, should be called the shamash, the servant. Then he became a public servant himself, and he understood it well enough.

Gabriel’s parents never bothered with prayers and that sort of thing, and neither did Gabriel. He was far too busy. He did inherit his grandfather’s great silver menorah, and sometimes–at Christmastime, and when Christopher was being particularly irksome–he entertained the idea of bringing it out, but it was just an idle notion.

Now Gabriel is no longer busy. He’s retired, and there’s nothing in particular to fill however many days he has left, and when the days are growing shorter and Mordecai finds the menorah in among the effects he’s brought from the Castle, Gabriel has him set it up in his bedroom window. He stands to light the lamps and chant the half-remembered blessings, and each evening the effort is enough to exhaust him. Mordecai has to help him back to bed. From there, Gabriel can watch the lights burning at the ends of their silver lamps, as they gutter out one by one.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] Nine Lights](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9140002) by [Chestnut_filly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chestnut_filly/pseuds/Chestnut_filly)




End file.
